Dutch black metal experimentalists Grey Aura will soon release their second album, «Zwart vierkant», an album based on Ruben Wijlacker‘s novel «De protodood in zwarte haren», “a story about a young painter who is engulfed by radical modernism and an unquenchable desire for abstraction.” This is the culmination of a process that began a long time ago, as we talked about with the band on our 2019 interview with them, which you can read here. Without surprise, the album title translates to “Black square,” the suprematist masterpiece by Kazimir Malevich. Below, listen to the album’s opener «Maria Segovia».

Recall, the band previously adapted parts of Wijlacker’s novel in two demos «1: Gelige, traumatische zielsverrukking» and «2: De bezwijkende deugd». The upcoming «Zwart vierkant» will include quite a few re-recorded and re-worked versions of songs from those demos, three from each to be more precise. One such example can be heard below, in the magnificent new version of «El Greco in Toledo», which now includes “real sounds of the Toledo Cathedral in Spain.”

«Zwart vierkant» is set for release on May 7 via Onism Productions on cd and vinyl and via Kunstlicht on cassette formats. Pre-orders can be found here (cassette, cd, and vinyl) and here (digital).

Below, further revisit the two aforementioned demos.

«1: Gelige, traumatische zielsverrukking» was independently released on July 12, 2017, with subsequent cassette editions by The Throat and Tartarus Records. Its digital version can be found here.

«2: De bezwijkende deugd» was on March 4, 2019, by Tartarus Records on cassette and digital formats, the latter of which is available here.